What are your load preferences?

I'm not leased, but I look for the same things now that I did when under contract: shortest loads, paying the most for the amount of time and effort I put into them. When leased, I'd get to a terminal and look at what loads were available, and call dispatch and ask if I could have them. Sometimes they have other plans, sometimes I could do what I want and still meet their goals.

 

I don't do any live unloads after 3 because that's when most of the traffic is out and you can't turn most equipment in for intermodal.

 

It means pay to the truck after the company gets their share.

 

how much deadhead,minimum per mile,regions where you like to run,max weight,tarp size and of course equipment type

 

You're talking about one company, a bright spot, in a world of darkness that is pretty much forced dispatch business as usual. Try setting parameters for dispatch at a company not called Mercer and see how it flies.

Ironically Mercer was on my short list a few years ago. I know they do have a lot of vans but they just didn't seem like a good fit for me and their van freight almost seems like an after thought. There is a guy in my home town with 2 trucks there, been there over 10 years and loves it. He's got a step, couple of flats, and a van he bought several years ago. Can't probably still got the new plastic on the air bags never hauled a load that he uses for storage lol. I'd have to start throwing chains and learn how to self dispatch there. Know nothing at all about flatbed freight would be a complete newbie all over again. I don't think I'd ever be happy being dispatched no matter what the rates were like.

 

Depends on the business model the O/O runs his business as. If the O/O leases his equipment onto a large trucking company, then he most likely is a stopgap carrier. He, the O/O, is someone who has entered into a business relationship with a carrier who has dispatchers and whose goal is to service their direct customers. An O/O in this relationship is being compensated on a cents per mile rate that was agreed to prior to signing, and that does not vary much. (small variance/fuel surcharge). Refusing a load under these conditions is extremely problematic for the trucking company who has a commitment to it's customers. The trucking company views itself as the O/O's customer, and employer.

Signing onto a large carrier is lunacy, IMHO, and the majority of O/O's who do this do so because they don't know any better.

A dispatcher for a large carrier doesn't cater to the O/O, the expectation is...

That the O/O cater to the carrier.

And that's in keeping with a customer service perspective. For the O/O, the large carrier sees itself as his/her customer, the O/O gets his loads from his/her customer, the carrier, and these loads are his/her income source. The O/O who has hitched his horse to the large carrier wagon has severely limited his/her options. This is why I consider this model, "lunacy".

Almost every O/O started out as a company driver, and most spent a considerable amount of time as a company driver. What happens is the company driver mentality becomes instilled, and when the company driver buys his own truck he hasn't become a business owner who thinks for himself/herself. He/she is a company driver who has bought a truck. This is why the megas like leasing. They, the mega carriers, prey on this phenomenon.

Very few O/O's see themselves as businessmen, and fewer still know how to market themselves and form partnerships with carriers.

What you're trying to reconcile is the large company stopgap model with the partnership model. It is irreconcilable. It's like trying to mix oil and water....

 

my rule is " light loads and flat roads ";
keeps my MPG high and lower maintenance costs; the pay/mile is important but also depends where the load goes and what weight;
here is the terrain map, mountains and high grades are killing trucks especially this new hot high back pressure emission motors; I'm trying to stay on flat green zone, from my experience with 2 motors blown up in Utah and 5-6 radiators pulling out of CA,OR,WA, doesn't worth to pull heavy across the west and mountains for few extra cents;

 

He means $1.80 per mile paid to the truck after the other folks take their share of the money.

 

There is an endless possibility when it comes to business revenue division. You could build a formula that consists of some percentage of the gross, or one based on mileage, or a combination of the two....

Looking for a compensation package that is some "industry standard" is to not understand free market capitalism and business negotiation.

This is why most first time prospective O/O's end up failing. It's as simple as, "they had no idea of what they were getting themselves into".